2026 Japan–Philippines Friendship Year Commemorative Symposium

President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Special Assistant to the President and Visiting Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies; Visiting Professor at the Nano-Life Innovation Research Organization at Waseda University; and Advisory Board Member at the Osaka University Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research. His expertise lies in science, technology, and innovation policy. He has served as a Cabinet Office Advisor and held positions such as Member of the Expert Panel on Economic Security Legislation in the Cabinet Secretariat, Chairman of the Okinawa Development Council in the Cabinet Office, Member of the Basic Policy Subcommittee of the Space Policy Committee in the Cabinet Office, Member of the Expert Survey Committee of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation in the Cabinet Office, and Member of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University, a Master of International Affairs (MIA) from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) from Georgetown University.

Ambassador MYLENE DE JOYA GARCIA-ALBANO is a native of Davao City and the first female Ambassador of the Philippines to Japan. She is an accomplished lawyer and bar topnotcher, with a long and distinguished career in the government service.
The Ambassador was the only female in the Top Ten examinees of the 1990 Philippine Bar Examinations, placing third with a grade of 88.95 percent. She graduated with Second Honors from the Ateneo de Manila University’s College of Law in 1990, where she also served as the Student Government’s first female President from 1989-1990. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1982 and an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from Marymount College in Palos Verdes, California in 1980.
Prior to her appointment as Ambassador, she was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Davao City International Airport Authority.
A long-time lawmaker, she was the first female elected to represent the 2nd District of Davao City in the House of Representatives. She served three consecutive terms as Congresswoman from 2010-2019. During this time, she also served as Assistant Majority Leader of the 15th Congress (from 2010-2013), Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments of the 16th Congress (2013-2016), and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 17th Congress (2016-2019).
Prior to her term in Congress, she was able to put her legal skills to good use in various offices in government. Among others, she worked as Chief of Staff of Senator Mar Roxas; as Assistant Secretary of Local Government Affairs and Legal Affairs of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; as Executive Director of the Land Administration and Management Project of the DENR; and as Legal Assistant at the Office of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Renato L. Cayetano.
After being admitted to the bar, she worked at the Ponce Enrile Cayetano Reyes & Manalastas Law Offices and later at the Villareal Law Offices.
She is married to Governor Rodolfo T. Albano III of the Province of Isabela and is blessed with a son.

WADA Yoshiaki, born in 1971 in Osaka, moved to Paris with his father after attending elementary and junior high school in Kobe. Upon returning to Japan, he graduated from Waseda University's School of Commerce and joined Mitsubishi Corporation, Automotive Business Division. He worked for Latin America, Southeast Asia, India market including Indonesia. During his career, he has lived in Peru for 1 year and India for 5 years in where he played a key role in corporate revitalization and the auto dealership network development. In 2014, he left Mitsubishi Corporation and joined the Sapporo office of his father-in-law, MACHIMURA Nobutaka, former Speaker of the House of Representative, foreign minister, education minister and chief cabinet minister. In the 2016 by-election for Hokkaido's 5th district, he ran as a certified candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and achieved his first election victory. He was subsequently reelected in the 48th general election for the House of Representatives. In 2020, he served as Parliamentary Vice minister of the Cabinet Office in the administration of SUGA Yoshihide and fought against Covid-19. He secured his third election victory in the 49th general election for the House of Representatives. He served as Senior Vice State Minister of Cabinet Office in the Second Kishida Cabinet Administration from August 2022 and as Special Senior Adviser to the Minister of Defense in the Second Kishida Administration Second Reconstituted Cabinet from October 2023. He was elected for the fourth time in the 51st general election and is currently serving as a Member of the House of Representatives.

Saya Kiba is a political scientist and an associate professor at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies. Her primary research interests include Philippine studies and Southeast Asian studies. She has professional experience working at Japanese embassies in the Philippines and Thailand, and the National Diet of Japan. Her recent work includes the co-edited book Pathways for Irregular Forces in Southeast Asia: Mitigating Violence with Non-State Armed Groups (Routledge, 2022). As a reservist of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Forces (SDF), she researches security sector governance in Japan and other Asian countries from a military sociological perspective. She is a member of the Expert Panel on Ministry of Defense Capacity Building in Japan.

He is a Board Member of the NPO Philippine Nikkei-jin Legal Support Center.
He worked for a total of 22 and a half years as a journalist with The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd., serving in the Social Affairs Department of both the Osaka Head Office and the Tokyo Head Office, as well as in the Foreign News Department. During his tenure as Manila Bureau Chief, he also served as President of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap).
After taking early retirement from The Mainichi Newspapers, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in East and Southeast Asian Studies from the Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
He has since held numerous academic and research positions, including:
Professor and Director, Kyushu University Center for Asian Comprehensive Policy;
Visiting Research Fellow (Professor‑equivalent), Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;
Professor, Department of Global Citizenship Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Seisen University, and Director, Institute for Human Sciences, Seisen University;
and External Professor, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Office of Public Health Studies.
His major publications include:
Hapon: The Long Postwar of the Nikkeijin in the Philippines (Daisan Shokan, 1991);
The Philippines beyond Tourist Routes: History, Contemporary Society, and Japan–Philippines Relations (Kobunken, 2007);
The Forgotten Japanese: The Long Postwar of Second‑Generation Japanese Left Behind in the Philippines (Kobunken, 2025); and
Transforming Nikkei Identities and Citizenship: Untold Life Histories of Three Generations of Nikkeijin in the Philippines (Kyoto University Press, 2026).
He received the Outstanding Alumni Award (Migration Studies Category) in 2016 from the alumni association of the University of the Philippines, where he obtained his Master of Arts in Philippine Studies, and in 2025 was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the UP Asian Center—the only foreign recipient to date.

She is a third-generation Nikkei who holds both a Juris Doctor and a Doctor of Philosophy in Education from Ateneo de Davao University.
She concurrently serves as School President of Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School and Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku. She is also the Chairperson of the Board of Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai (Davao) and the National President of the Federation of War-Displaced Japanese Descendants in the Philippines.
As a Nikkei leader in the Philippines, she has been invited to speak at national and international conferences on the history, struggles, initiatives, and triumphs of the Nikkeijin in the Philippines, including gatherings held in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Thailand, Tokyo, and Nagoya.
As an academic leader, she is a sought-after speaker and lecturer on educational and organizational matters. She is likewise a respected education certifier in the Philippines and a PAASCU accreditor for various private schools across the country.
She was honored as a recipient of the Datu Bago Award in 2019, one of the highest distinctions conferred by the Davao City Government. In 2021, she was also awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Government of Japan.

Dr Miki was born in 1947 and graduated Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in 1970. His academic achievements include in areas of civil engineering and structural design.　 He has participated in major bridge projects such as the Honshu–Shikoku Bridge Project and the Tokyo Gate Bridge.
He served as a research associate at Tokyo Tech, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, and an associate professor at Tokyo Tech before being appointed professor at Tokyo Tech in 1890. During his tenure, he served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Executive Director/Vice President. In 2012, he transferred to Tokyo City University, where he served as Distinguished Professor and Vice President, and subsequently held the position of President from 2014 to 2023.
In the field of international collaboration, he has been involved in managing various human resource development programs, including the JSPS Core University Program “Philippines: Urban Development and the Environment,” the JICA “AUN/SEED Net Project”, and JST “Sakura Science Program”. At Tokyo City University, he launched Asia Oceania Five Universities Alliance”AOFUA”.

Dr. Myra O. Villareal is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Sophia University in Tokyo. Her research expertise lies in molecular biology and functional food science, with specialized focus on the health-promoting properties of natural compounds and their effects on metabolic diseases and aging.

She earned her doctorate from the University of Tsukuba, where she established a strong foundation in life sciences and biotechnology. In addition to her academic work in Japan, Dr. Villareal serves as a “Balik Scientist” under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in the Philippines. In this capacity, she works with state college and universities and local institutions to strengthen national research capabilities and foster international collaboration in the fields of functional food and nutraceuticals. Beyond academia, she authors the “Rooted in Science” column for the Manila Bulletin Agriculture magazine, where she aims to present the science behind functional foods to a wider audience.

After graduating from the Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, the University of Tokyo, Nobuyuki Konishi joined NEC Corporation. Following five years in the Personnel Department, he spent 27 years at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), working on various international cooperation projects in developing countries. In particular, he was engaged in formulating and implementing many higher education development cooperation projects in Southeast Asia. One notable initiative was the AUN/SEED-Net (ASEAN University Network/Southeast Asia Engineering Education Development Network) project. Under this framework, he supported collaboration between universities in the Philippines and Japan, helping young faculty members attain degrees through study abroad programs and strengthening research capacity through joint research. Since April 2022, he has been with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, where he manages international dialogue and exchange projects in Asia.

She graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University and joined the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), where she focused on educational development programs. Over the course of her career, she held several senior leadership positions, including Senior Vice President, Director General of the Human Development Department, Director of the JICA Research Institute, and Chief Representative of the Bangladesh Office. She pursued further studies at the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning and completed the DEA program at Paris V University, later earning a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University.
She has played a pivotal role in designing and implementing Japan’s international education cooperation initiatives, while also contributing to academic research on educational development and the internationalization of higher education. Her work has been widely published in academic books and journals.
Since 2025, she has served as Executive Director of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, where she leads strategic dialogue and exchange programs with Asia, supports peacebuilding efforts, and oversees Japan-China exchange initiatives.
She concurrently serves as Senior Research Advisor at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development, Director of the Honda Foundation, Director of the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services, Director of Care International Japan, and Councilor of the Broadcast Program International Exchange Center, among others.